Wednesday 16 January 2008

Exhibitions in Spain


I just worked out today that I may be the only Spanish student doing this course, so I thought I should share with the rest of my virtual classmates some of the reading and seeing I have come across during the last holidays in my country.
First of all and highly recommended is "Beats of a shocked world" ( "Latidos de un mundo convulso" ), an exhibition hosted by Obra Social Caja Madrid and curated by Sandra Basells that shows a variety of conflictive scenes from over the last 30 years. Highly respected Spanish photographers like Carmen Garcia Rodero, Kim Manresa, Javier Bauluz, Enric Marti, Paco Elvira and Santiago Lyon are brought together thanks to this documentary photography project which offers a compromising look at a range of dramatic situations of war, injustice and misery. The main objective of this exhibition is to emphasize the symbolic function of photography as an instrument capable of raising awareness and transforming lives.
Another surprisingly impressive discovery from Spanish newspaper El Pais are the pictures of Italian phothographer Giorgia Fiorio featuring the article "What the human being believe in?" by Luis Miguel Ariza. Black and white pictures show universal people's desire to communicate with gods in places like the banks of the river Ganges in Varanasi (India), the cathedral of Saint Gabriel in Lalibela (Ethiopia), the village of Saint Peter Cutud (Philippines), the waterfall of Saut d'Eau (Haiti) and the summit of Mount Kyaikto in Myanmar. The photographer displays through her images testimonies of people having all kind of mistical experiences described as a form of primitive conciousness deeper than the intelectual level provided by education and tradition.
And finally Cervantes Institute, the organization I am working for at the moment, shows " Vidas Minadas", an excellent exhibition by Spanish photographer Gervasio Sanchez about the personal story of victims of mines in countries like Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Colombia and Irak.

1 comment:

anca munteanu said...

dear rafael,
hello from berlin! I looked up your photos (by accident, a beautiful accident) and I was wondering if you
have any pictures from polen, warsaw, I am an artist which is invited to do something where (theater/art/performance) and I like your view on countries, written and visualized. greetings, anca munteanu rimnic